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Wednesday

“The illiterate of the 21st
Century are not those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn,
unlearn and relearn.”― Alvin Toffler in Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Power at the Edge of the
21st Century

I am often reminded of Toffler’s famous observation when I
see the rapid disruptions in the world of communications. It’s
becoming difficult for comms pros to keep pace, to consult clients and remain
relevant in an industry that is constantly forcing us to learn, relearn and unlearn.

‘Hyperconnectivity’ is one such trend and is going to define
the future. What it essentially refers to is a paradigm shift from ‘going
online’ to ‘being online’– a coming of age of the internet; the reality of a
parallel virtual universe.

Complex media
environment: We need to be agile and alert. It is increasingly becoming a
complex media environment. We need to be adept at communicating ‘in’ and also ‘across’
different platforms being aware that the message will be consumed differently and
conveyed further increasingly differently.
It’s complex where there are numerous apps, different screens, different
devices, different formats and add to it the customized narratives for each. While
we talk content, it’s interesting to realize that the monopoly over content by prominent
individuals and conglomerates have been completely broken. A good story can be
told by anyone, anywhere with great impact. Managing narratives have become
difficult and this brings me to my second point of target audiences.

Demanding Audiences: Our audiences demand more, and along
with the story we need to deliver an ‘experience’. Interactivity is important,
so is the format and experience of consumption, and we have to take care of
all, knowing fully well that a story that isn’t credible won’t last long.

Audience
Fragmentation: Audiences have access to multiple sources of information.
Loyalties switch across platforms depending upon the format and experience
across platforms and there can be 'multiple loyalties'. Multiplicity of platforms actually means audiences are
getting divided into smaller groups and the same group of people might exhibit
different behaviors across different platforms. This brings me to my third
point.

Measurement
Difficulties: How do you make sense of all this? I am not too sure of
accuracy levels of current data analytics and to what extent are they effective
when it comes to some sort of predictive modeling simply because of the
overwhelming number of variables that are coming into play. Will be glad if any
reader can enlighten here…

Monetization
difficulties: How do you monetize what you create? How do you protect what
you create from being duplicated? While we talk of content marketing and
content being king, content actually seems to have become real cheap thanks to over
supply! You should read this interesting piece (if you haven't read it already) in The New York Times, that
talks of the Slow
Death of the American Author.

Critics in India often argue that this reality is not
relevant for India. Given the weak broadband & data storage infrastructure, including the huge digital divide, any talk of internet enabled media doesn’t necessarily find
takers among all media practitioners always. I wonder if we can move in any
other direction though.